Paradigms, Mantras and Settling for Less

We love to simplify complex ideas, to make big thing small and sum things up as neatly as possible. It is the easiest way to keep thoughts organized and make sense out of the complicated. We try to take entire

ideologies or theologies and sum them up in tight pradigmic phrases. We especially do this with quotes pulled from deep thinkers. Rather than absorb the entirety of their arguments we lift the one or two phrases that seem to sum up the ideas nicely and just run with those.

Truth is easily apparent in each of these quotes or ideas. So the problem isn’t finding the wrong paradigms, it is settling for too few and doing so too readily. When we adopt a single paradigm, or maybe two, as our inspiration and guidance they easily become mantras – phrases repeated endlessly with little thought in the hopes it will transform. Mantras are meaningless. Christians can even do this with “life verses.” Jeremiah 29:11 becomes the quick fix for all problems and Romans 8:28 is the comfort for all troubles.

Three main problems present themselves when we settle for such simplistic, mantra like wisdom. First, is that we are settling for synthesized and compacted thought. The strength of these singular thoughts comes from a massive scaffold of other thoughts on which they are built. If all we take is the single mantra we know little of the true power of the thought. The second problem is more one of human nature: anything repeated often enough, no matter how brilliant, becomes rote and fades into the background. In order for truth to maintain its radiance in our eyes it must remain varied and rotated. Truths repeated endlessly become tired (though not less true). The third problem is also a function of humanity – that of human error. No one mantra sums all of life or truth perfectly. No one piece of wisdom answers all the questions or is clearly applied in every situation. So to claim one or two or three bits of wisdom as what you “base your life on” is to leave yourself with a largely empty tool box while face the complex project of life.

There is no simple way to find and learn wisdom for life. The function of simplicity is to create easier opportunities to begin discovering, but not to be the end of discovering. Even biblical truths cannot be isolated and claimed apart from the full canon. Our response to brilliant bites of wisdom should not be to treat them like the samples at Costco but rather as an appetizer for the seven course meal. Each bite should titillate the senses and create wonder as to what more there might be.